The embodiments herein relate generally to consumer purchase tracking, and in particular to tracking consumer purchases in exchange for communication services.
A typical person with a cell phone pays a monthly fee to a cell phone service provider for a level of service. For example, the person might pay fifty dollars per month for a particular number of allocated minutes that the person can use during the month. Most people with cell phones would like to obtain free or reduced price cell phone service. To date, .currently existing loyalty programs offer incentives that are exclusive to specific vendors and/or products and are widely used by consumers who wish to save money and/or obtain the loyalty program benefits. However, no cell phone service loyalty program or other program exists that can provide benefits to consumers in the form of free or reduced-price cell phone service. Since most consumers with cell phones are also consumers of other products that are associated with loyalty programs (i.e., clothes, travel, groceries, gas, etc.), many consumers would like a way to leverage their purchases of such products in order to obtain free or reduced-price cell phone service.
Therefore, what is needed is a mechanism for providing incentives to consumers to purchase items which can be tracked in exchange for free and/or reduced-price cell phone service.